in mind.” Curtis cut them both off in an impatient voice. “And now, if you want to leave the flowers and get going, that would be great because we’re sort of in the middle of something.”
“Ooh, touchy,” Trevor retorted before he swooped down and deposited the flowers in Emma’s lap and winked. “Anyway, we’ve got a new bookstore to try out. Apparently they put real chocolate flakes in their cappuccinos,” he said, and without saying another word, the three of them disappeared out the door.
“Okay, so that was weird. Since when do fairies make house calls?” Emma said as she absentmindedly picked up a tiny plastic bouquet of flowers. She was just about to push it behind her ear when she suddenly frowned and turned back to Curtis. “How did you know they had flowers with them?”
“What?”
“How did you know?” she repeated. “You’re sight-blind, remember, and while you told me you could still hear and sense their presence, it doesn’t explain how you knew about the flowers. They were holding them when you said it, which means you couldn’t see them, right?”
Curtis grinned as he reached over to the small cabinet that was between their two beds and handed her a small flat canister. Her dad used something similar for his contact lenses and Emma studied it for a moment before glancing back up at him.
“Oh my God—” She turned toward him, her cheeks flushed with hope. “Don’t tell me that you’ve got special contact lenses to let you see dragons?”
“Not just dragons.” He unleashed his trademark smile and Emma felt her toes curl. “Pretty much everything. Apparently Principal Kessler’s been in touch with the guy who invented those glasses that I was wearing. Anyway, it turned out he’d moved onto smaller and more specific lenses. They still can’t work on regular sight-blind people, but apparently because I can hear and feel the presence of elementals, they can work on me.”
“Curtis, that’s so wonderful. I can hardly believe it.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty co—” he started to say, but was cut off as Principal Kessler and Nurse Reynes walked into the room.
“I thought I told you to let her sleep,” the nurse chided.
“I’m starting to think I should’ve woken her up ten minutes earlier,” Curtis mumbled as a frustrated expression crossed his face, which only made Emma grin even more. However, she tried her hardest to bite back her smile as Principal Kessler took a seat next to her bed.
“So, Emma Jones, it appears you’ve had a busy week, what with finding an unknown fairy elemental. The oldest and most dangerous one to boot. Not to mention the fact that you’ve turned into an über-slayer.”
“I’d hardly call it über-slaying. I used candy to kill an invisible fairy,” she protested as she wondered how long Principal Kessler planned to stay in the room. While it was nice to know she wasn’t going to get another detention, she would really much prefer to talk to Curtis.
Unfortunately, Principal Kessler didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. He turned to Curtis and shot him a surprised look.
“I gather you didn’t get a chance to tell her about it?”
Curtis shook his head. “Besides, I still don’t really understand it myself.”
“Understand what?” Emma stared at them both as Nurse Reynes pulled a large black folder out of her purse.
“Understand the reason behind why you could see the darkhel,” the nurse explained as she flipped open the folder and proceeded to show Emma a series of figures that made no sense at all. “And why in your simulation fights Professor Meyers reported a marked increase in your strength and agility. Not to mention why you didn’t die from the scratch the darkhel gave you, and why you’ve healed so quickly from your injuries.”
Emma automatically wriggled her twisted ankle and realized it didn’t hurt. She pulled back the sheets, but instead of lacerated wounds, she saw only a faint line of pink running down her calf. She looked back up at Principal Kessler and the nurse and frowned.
“I don’t understand. What’s this all about?”
“We have reason to believe it’s because of the accident you had the previous Saturday.”
“You mean when I hurt my eye at the food court?” Emma stared at them both in an effort to figure out what they are talking about.
“That’s right. We think it’s because a small piece of the Gate of Linaria landed in your eye.”
“You’re joking, right?” she asked, but neither of them laughed.